Oh Canada

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Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)

"'OH CANADA, WE STAND ON GUARD FOR THEE'.......like offering a stranger a drink of water, and they never leave. It's fall and the pond is filling up with guests," writes my friend Wayne Mallinger.

Once upon a midnight dreary, Canada geese only passed through our state in the spring and fall migrating to warmer climes in the South to spend their winters. But, somewhere along the line they realized the middle latitudes were commodious year round. 

When I was a child, the first BIG book on birds we had in our home, Pearson's Birds of America originally published in 1917, states, "The great breeding grounds of this Goose are in the British provinces, few, if any, of the eastern flight pausing in spring south of the Canadian border." 

Today, they have become ubiquitous in Tennessee and we tend to look past them, but Wayne's photo shows how big and powerful they truly are.


Depending on which book you consult, there are six or seven separate sub-species or populations only varying in size and location. The ones farther north are bigger. Sibley lists six groups: Aleutian, Richardson's, cackling, lesser, dusky and the widespread "common." 

As Wayne's photo illustrates, they are so large, when they take off from land or water, Canada geese have to run a step or two before they can lift off. This makes them look like they are walking on water. Impressive either here or in Canada. 

- Photo by Wayne Mallinger

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